My favorite crow gun is my old Ithica/LeFever side by side. I won't shoot steel shot through it and other non-toxic shot choices are too rich for my blood. So I stay on dry ground for crows.
I used #7 steel shot one year and couldn't believe it-it took crows down!!*
*I thought Vermont required it but in any case I got up to go here in NH and tried it out as it was all I took by accident and was surprised at the results!
-- Edited by killer Crowalski on Wednesday 7th of February 2018 07:43:11 AM
Steel shot works much better on crows than it does on waterfowl. You should not have any problem with it's effectiveness. Are you hunting federal or state lands that have no tox shot rules, I am wondering why is no tox mandated for crows?
nhcrowshooter- Iowa has several waterfowl areas that require nontox for everything. Some have had some decent numbers and I can't resist driving by....
While the game laws require non-toxic shot for hunting migratory birds, our game wardens generally only worry about ducks and geese. Crows and snipe are considered migratory birds, but I've never heard of tickets being issued to those using lead shot for these smaller birds, even those taken near or over marshes.
As for marshes, around here, they do not have a hard bottom and shot will go into the mud and will not stop sinking. Dabbling ducks cannot get pellets out of the mud, particularly the smaller shot.
This is a good question for your state DNR office personnel or at least your local game warden(s). Our state office gave me the go-ahead. YMMV.
Good luck and good hunting.
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Yeah- asked game warden directly. A few Iowa counties made it steel only on all public ground.
I've offered to eat all the pellets they could find after I fired a shotgun across a field or water and no one has taken me up on it yet. I think its a feel good bunch of crap but the waterfowlers have bought into it too so no going back.
While the game laws require non-toxic shot for hunting migratory birds, our game wardens generally only worry about ducks and geese. Crows and snipe are considered migratory birds, but I've never heard of tickets being issued to those using lead shot for these smaller birds, even those taken near or over marshes.
As for marshes, around here, they do not have a hard bottom and shot will go into the mud and will not stop sinking. Dabbling ducks cannot get pellets out of the mud, particularly the smaller shot.
This is a good question for your state DNR office personnel or at least your local game warden(s). Our state office gave me the go-ahead. YMMV.
Good luck and good hunting.
Demi
A couple of us here in Maine talked to a few game wardens about 5-6 years ago. It was written into our law book that since crows were migratory, we had to plug our guns, use non-toxic shot and we couldn't use electronic game calls. They assured us that we could ignore all 3 rules and they would remove the false laws from the law books.
Last I looked, it was still incorrect in our laws.
I know loads get talked about a lot but I never realized how much of a difference there really is in actual performance. I was shooting trap today with normal #8 1 oz target loads I only had a couple clays left and grabbed a handful of some #6 1 1/4 heavy fields loads just to see how they did. I went from breaking clays with the #8 to vaporizing them with the #6 heavy field loads. What an eye opener, the heavy field hit harder, hit faster and had much more range. I normally always you the cheap target stuff for crows but I wont ever again, it was like fighting with one hand tired behind my back.